Day for Night
by Mark of the Asphodel
Summary: Intrigue and romance unfold on board a luxury liner bound for Silesse. Prince Quan is keeping his vow to aid his brother-in-law Sigurd, Princess Ethlyn is playing matchmaker, Raquesis has a ticket that won't get her all the way to Silesse, and Finn is in the middle of it all. Quasi-Edwardian Era AU with a bit of alternate continuity going on.
1. The Mystery Guest

**Day for Night**

I do not own _Fire Emblem_ or any of its characters.

AU set in the rough equivalent of the 1910s, taking place on board a large and luxurious ocean liner en route from Leonster to Silesse. Nothing bad could possibly happen here.

* * *

><p><em>The Mystery Guest<em>

"Lady Altena! Wait!"

It was said to take a man of average speed a good twenty-five minutes, at a brisk walk, to cross the main deck of the _Queen __Nova_. Lady Altena dashed away from Finn at a rate that might've taken her from bow to stern in twenty, and Finn felt a flutter of panic in his chest as the little girl navigated the gaps between their fellow passengers. If he were to lose her…

"Lady Altena, _please_!"

Altena skidded to a halt, spun 'round in a flurry of skirts and scampered back to Finn. This time he took her securely by the hand, though not before checking to be certain Lady Altena's white hat with its broad red ribbon was fastened beneath her chin.

"You mustn't run off. This ship is not a playground," he said, and Lady Altena responded to this mild chiding by showing Finn a perfectly satisfied smile.

_Everything_ was Lady Altena's playground, even the greatest steamer of the northern seas.

"We're going back to our rooms now, and Nanny will have to look after you the rest of the afternoon," Finn said, and Lady Altena's smile inverted at once into a toothy frown. "And you mustn't scowl like that, either. Chin up, like a good girl."

"I _won't_," said Lady Altena. "I want to walk with you, Finn. You _said_ we could walk along the deck all the way to the end."

Finn held to the punishment of taking Lady Altena back to Nanny, as it was the only real discipline he could dole out to the little princess.

"If you behave perfectly the next twenty-four hours, I'll take you to the end of the deck tomorrow," he said.

Finn half-expected Lady Altena to respond to this by wrenching off her hat and sending it flying over the rail, but instead the princess straightened her small shoulders, held up her chin, and walked back to their sleeping quarters with as much dignity as a five-year-old could possess. Even if there was something of _I'll show you I can behave_ in her step, it was technically compliance.

-x-

Lady Altena continued her show of good behavior until she was dropped off with Nanny. The premature end to their outing on the deck meant that Finn had about two hours of time on his hands, and since this wasn't a normal or comfortable state for Finn, he walked back to his own rooms feeling at a bit of a loss. He could have simply relaxed in the suite Princess Ethlyn had booked for him; with its electrical call bell, damasked wallpaper, and silver-plated tap, the suite might have passed for a first-rate hotel room had the furniture not been bolted to the floor. But at present Finn didn't feel like penning a letter at the elegant writing desk or calling up a meal; he hesitated for a moment in the doorway, then stepped back into the corridor and shut the door behind him.

Surely, on so fine a ship he could find some way of passing two hours. He could avail himself of the swimming pool, or the baths, or find one of the orchestras who performed throughout the ship. Finn never quite managed to do any of these things. He spent his unexpected free time wandering the deck, getting lost enough in the process that he found himself in a stairwell meant for use by Second Class passengers, staring at middle-aged member of said class. They were, Finn thought, equally surprised by one another.

"My lord," the man said with a tip of his hat.

"That isn't necessary," Finn murmured as he backed out of the stairwell, but he wasn't sure if the other heard him, or if it mattered. Likely it didn't matter; the man was conditioned to address anyone not immediately placeable among the working class as "my lord" lest he give offense to the member of some noble house.

This particular member of a noble house of Leonster now had to lean back against the bulkhead and laugh at himself.

"I should've stayed in and written letters."

-x-

Finn did manage to get back to his rooms in time for dinner. Princess Ethyln wasn't cross with him over the incident with Lady Altena; rather, she was _sparkling_ in the manner she had when some surprise was in store. Tonight's surprise was that the princess had invited a guest to dine with them in the privacy of the Regal Suite. Ethlyn wouldn't give up the name, and Finn spent some time trying to guess. So many of the continent's most celebrated were on the _Queen Nova_ that the mystery guest might have been a celebrated painter, a wealthy shipping magnate, a famed general, a great architect…

"None of these, Finn," Princess Ethlyn laughed. "It'll be someone whose company is much more pleasing to you."

Finn still didn't understand her, not until their guest arrived appeared in the doorway like a conjured shade. A fashionable shade, to be sure, with black ostrich feathers adorning her bonnet and jet beads tinkling along the hem of her black velvet gown. A beautifully-fitted black velvet gown, Finn thought, as he bowed to the degree a Princess of House Nordion merited.

"Lady Raquesis... I am glad to see you looking well."

Ordinarily he would've said more, would've offered some requisite condolences to the recent widow, but something stopped him. It might have been the ostrich cockade, or the elegant flare of the sable skirt, or the merest fringe of netting that dangled from the lady's bonnet in place of a mourning veil.

"I'm quite well, thank you," she said in the low voice that brought to mind ripe Agustrian fruit, lush black plums and rose-tinged velvet peaches. Her eyes shone like topaz from under that inadequate netting.

And here Finn caught himself, because if he was thinking in the poetic cliches of sun-ripened stone fruit and semi-precious gems, he was already quite out of line and they hadn't been served the first course yet. Prince Quan hadn't even _arrived _yet. But then the Crown Prince appeared, a smile on his lips rather than any excuse for his tardiness, and Finn retreated into his thoughts while the royal couple entertained Lady Raquesis. Those thoughts were pruned of any stray bits of poesy, as Finn resolved to treat this lighthearted dinner as though it were a staff meeting. From the conversation between Ethlyn and Raquesis, he determined the following about the Princess of Nordion:

She had left her only son, borne to her late husband, in the care of friends in Northern Isaach.

Her infant daughter was sleeping in their stateroom and was a very good baby who coped well with travel.

Her business in Leonster had been checking up on her only other living relative, the young son of her late brother.

She was now returning to Isaach to reunite with said son and would not be going further than the northernmost port of Isaach on this journey.

"Oh, but that's a shame," said Princess Ethlyn. "I was hoping you'd be coming all the way to Silesse with us."

Raquesis made a little noise of agreement. Yes, it was sad to cut short a journey on Leonster's finest steamer. But she then glanced at Finn, and there was something in that topaz flash that wasn't precisely regret. Finn realized that Nordion's resourceful princess was, likely as not, gathering information on her own.

Finn did not believe that Lady Raquesis came all the way to Leonster purely to make inquiries into the health and well-being of her nephew. He wondered now if her return ticket truly went only as far as the last port in Isaach.

-x-

"Try not to give it all away in one session, Ethlyn," Quan said. He tried to sound stern, but the innumerable glasses of claret and port he'd consumed through the evening made his reprimand end in a yawn.

"Oh, don't be like that," Ethlyn said as she laid aside her earrings for the night. "I know Raquesis was playing the diplomat in Leonster in hopes of getting your father's backing for her nephew's claims to Agustria. She knows that we're going back to Silesse to help Sigurd. There's no reason our causes can't support one another."

"Aside from the very good reason that Raquesis already lost a husband in Sigurd's service and might well feel she's done enough for the cause."

Put so baldly, this idea did give Ethlyn pause, but she then said, "I don't think that's really the case."

"Don't fret over Raquesis. We'll get your brother everything that he needs," Quan assured her, and he put out the lights.

**To Be Continued…**

A/N: Yes, I messed with the canon timeline a bit for this AU. Sigurd's penned up in Silesse hoping to get home some day, but Leif and Nanna are already born. There's more. Stay tuned for the next installment, "A Load of Potatoes"!


	2. A Load of Potatoes

**Day for Night**

I do not own _Fire Emblem_ or any of its characters.

Warning: contains usage of alcohol and tobacco that may be considered inappropriate to a modern audience.

* * *

><p><em>A Load of Potatoes<em>

A sun-gilded seed drifted through the blue sky above the coast of southern Isaach. Finn felt a shiver of recognition down his neck at the sight— though this far south, near the capital of Isaach, it was surely a passenger-liner and not bearing a payload of bombs—but Lady Altena reacted to it with a shout of delight.

"Can we ride an airship in Silesse, Finn?"

"I don't think so, Lady Altena. Airships are needed for the war right now, and Her Majesty the Queen won't have any to spare."

Finn wasn't all that comfortable with the silent silver airships of the north; aside from the question of whether man was truly meant to leave the earth, airships blossomed into a floating inferno when their fragile metal skins burst- as they did, too often.

Lady Altena wanted to be an airship captain, wanted to sail through the skies without wings like the bravest women of Silesse, and now she asked Finn for a story that would suit her fancies. He placated her by piecing together a tale of heroic Captain Mahnya, who'd come down from the heavens like an angelic messenger to show Lord Sigurd the way to safety.

Captain Mahnya had been dead for two years now, but Finn didn't tell that part of it to Altena. She began to tell him in turn of the grand things she would do and the adventures she would have once she took flight, and assured Finn that he could come along, _must_ come along on all those adventures. So it went until he returned her to Nanny's care.

"I hope she takes a proper nap," Finn said to Nanny once Altena was handed off. "She needs to be on her best behavior for dinner tonight. Is Lord Leif feeling any better today?"

Leonster's tiny heir hadn't taken to the seas. Lord Leif wasn't able to keep his breakfast down the first two days of the voyage, but Nanny now relayed that Lord Leif had eaten all of his lunch and not been sick afterward and was fit for an appearance at dinner that evening. This would be no private dinner in the Regal Suite; after leaving the port that serviced Isaach's capital, the _Queen Nova_ ought to have her fullest complement of distinguished guests, and so tonight's First Class dinner was to be a marvel worthy of every last dignitary and artistic genius. The royal children would be on display tonight, and Finn could only hope they were up to the task.

-x-

The First Class dining saloon was a scaled-down imitation of Manster Palace's grand hall— overflowing with roses and awash gilt and sparkling crystal. Finn had seen the genuine room at Manster Palace often enough, but the _Queen Nova's _replica still impressed him every time he stepped through its doors. He entered now a precise three paces behind the Crown Princess and Princess, guiding Lady Altena with one hand and carrying Lord Leif on his shoulder. The children certainly looked their best at the moment; Lady Altena, dressed in carmine to match her mother, had smoothly combed hair adorned with a broad velvet band that evoked a diadem. Lord Leif, suited up in the deep blue of Leonster's flag, almost looked a doll with his white collar and little buttoned boots.

The five-piece orchestra onstage played a verse of Leonster's national anthem as the royal family entered but had switched back to chamber music by the time they'd actually reached their chairs. Princess Ethlyn had warned Finn that they'd be seeing more of last night's guest, and sure enough Lady Raquesis was already there at their table. Tonight the black gown was moire silk, the beads were black glass with an iridescent glaze and the dark plumes of her bonnet came from some sea-bird; like the beads, they had the rainbow sheen of petrol spilled upon water. All this, though, was only a glistening backdrop for the apricot-hued bundle festooned in lace that she carried in her arms.

"Oh, is this Nanna?" exclaimed the Crown Princess. "How adorable."

Ethlyn wasn't only being polite, as the new member of House Nordion had smoothly pretty little features and a tuft of golden hair visible under her bonnet. Her eyes were open and she was looking around as though several months old instead of a mere six weeks, and when Prince Quan "shook hands" with her, he reported that she had fine strength in her little pink fingers. Finn didn't get to shake hands with Lady Nanna, as he was busy trying to keep Altena in her seat. The sight of something even smaller and more lovable than Baby Brother had Altena ready to crawl across the table in delight.

"I thought I could handle her by myself for a few hours, so I gave Isa the night off," Raquesis said to Finn in place of any conventional greeting, and Finn wondered if she was being pointed about the fact that _he_ was expected to child-wrangle his way through the night.

And a long night it proved— ten courses rather than the usual seven served up to First Class passengers, every one of them rendered a challenge by two lively children. Leif had to be kept from spilling soup down his front, Altena needed her poached salmon flaked and then mussed about in the sauce before she'd touch it, and then both of them needed their meat cut up when the first entree arrived… Finn was lucky to manage a few bites for himself out of every course and often only had a chance to sip at each glass of wine before it was taken away and replaced with something suited to the _next_ course.

"I can help," Raquesis offered, and again it seemed to him that there was something _interesting_ in her golden-brown eyes.

He declined the offer, even though Lady Nanna was presently napping and no trouble to Raquesis at all. He was on duty, after all, just in case some bomb-wielding anarchist happened to be aboard the _Queen Nova_, even if the most present threat to the royal children was simple indigestion. It was probably for the best that he wasn't able to drink much of the wine. Though liquor in some form laced every single course…

"Yay!" cried Altena as the waiter set a goblet of frozen punch before her.

"Careful, that has champagne in it…" Finn began, but Princess Ethlyn laughed it off.

"It's just a taste," she said, and so Altena dug into the punch as though it were a harmless orange ice.

Altena of course assumed she'd reached dessert, but really the punch was meant as a refreshing pause in the middle of the meal, and now the ship's captain came by to converse with some of his most renowned passengers. He made a special point of greeting little Nanna, the youngest child aboard the _Queen __Nova__. _Nanna was awake now and also impressed the dignified captain with her steady blue gaze and solid grip. Across the table, though, the royal children were lagging; Leif began to kick and fidget and forget any word other than "no" while Altena started to yawn after consuming half the punch in her goblet.

Four more courses to go, Finn thought as roasted squab in little nests of cress came into view. He'd long ago developed a kind of figurative tunnel vision in order to get through endurance-test events like this one, but now Lady Raquesis kept trying to strike up conversation even as the children required more and more attention.

"Orange and lemons say the bells of—"

"Lady Altena, please don't stab the plate with your fork."

"So, it sounds like you're running the affairs of Leonster while Quan juggles war on two fronts."

"Whatever kind things Princess Ethlyn said of me, I'm afraid they're not in keeping with the actual situation."

"What will you paaaay me?" Altena sang as she chipped out the rhythm to the macabre little tune with her tableware.

"No," Leif said, almost as though they were singing a round. "No, no, _no_!"

"So rumors that Quan's has you overseeing half Leonster's defenses aren't grounded in reality?"

"Of course not. Why would he do something like that and then have me come along to Silesse? I'm drafting letters and keeping account books when I'm not trying to convince Lady Altena not to misbehave at the table."

"So you're just looking over the boring things like all those crates of wheat flour down in the hold?"

"Here comes a candle to light you to bed—"

"Lady Altena, _no._"

"No! No!"

Finn had rarely been so glad to see the tray of desserts announcing the true end to a meal, and it certainly wasn't because he needed anything more to eat. At least the borderline chaos caused by the heirs of Leonster prevented any more discussion of the shipment of wheat to Silesse.

"I wonder where they found peaches in season," said Raquesis of the poached fruit on a bed of wine gelee.

"I was told they were brought in from some southern continent where the people still wear skins and carry clubs," Finn said, because that was the exact sort of operation the _Queen Nova_ was.

"No," said Lord Leif, but this time it was because he wanted all of the walnuts and apples picked out of his pudding so he could eat the components separately. Lady Altena for her part demolished her pudding as though she'd spent the day fasting and then wanted a caramel-glazed cream puff on top of it.

"That's enough for one night," said Finn, and the little princess at last sat back with a perfect smile on her sticky face and her equally sticky hands folded like a plaster angel's.

"No," said Leif one last time for good measure.

-x-

Prince Quan suggested that Finn accompany him to the smoking room after dinner. Princess Ethlyn waved them goodbye and announced that she, Lady Raquesis, and the children would be sipping tea on the balcony while the men enjoyed themselves. Finn had never picked up the habit but clearly his plans had been made for the evening, so he followed the prince into the great paneled den stocked with brandy, port, and fine cigars. Another glass of liquor was the absolute last thing Finn needed right now and he he stood by, ill-at-ease in the thick blue air, while Quan took a seat and removed his pipe and a pouch of his custom blend from his coat pocket.

"The captain received a telegram from Leonster this afternoon. A Thracian submarine took a civilian cargo ship, the _Pride of Manster_. The submarine captain demanded surrender, and once the _Pride of Manster_'s crew was all in lifeboats, they torpedoed her."

Finn couldn't say he was entirely surprised at this, shocking as the news ought to be.

"What was she carrying?"

"Nothing but a load of potatoes," Quan replied. "All at the bottom of the sea now."

"They sank the cargo rather than seize it? But Thracia pleads poverty and claims our blockade is strangling them. Why waste something that could be used?"

"That's the sort of animal we're dealing with, Finn. Whatever noises the Thracians make about the plight of their people..." Quan paused to strike a match and set his pipe alight. "We're contending with beasts, devoid of honor and without a conscience."

"Wolves of the sea," Finn said, for that was what the submariners allegedly called themselves in perverse pride.

"Not even wolves," said Quan. "Some lower beast. Coyotes or hyenas…" The sentence ended in a curl of smoke. After a few moments, Quan looked up at Finn and seemed surprised that Finn was merely standing there when there were so many pleasures to be had. "That was all I wanted to say, Finn. Go have a drink. Enjoy the rest of the night."

**To Be Continued**

* * *

><p>AN: The southern continent in question would be Valentia or Archanea, the latter of which canonically lagged Jugdral in terms of civilization.


	3. Live Cargo

**Day for Night**

I do not own _Fire Emblem_ or any of its characters.

Warning: contains usage of alcohol and tobacco that may be considered inappropriate to a modern audience.

* * *

><p><em>Live Cargo<em>

Princess Ethlyn picked the perfect afternoon for a luncheon at the Verandah Cafe. Its sparkling glass walls were opened for this unusually fine day upon the northern seas and a genuine marine breeze rippled the greenery around her.

"The crepes in white wine sauce are my favorite," she said to her companion.

"Sounds a little too rich for me right now," said Lady Raquesis, and she frowned over the choice between two different cream soups.

"You're not feeling seasick, are you?"

"No, I'm just getting used to eating only for myself again," Raquesis said, in the most overt allusion to the recent birth of her baby that a respectable lady might make in public. "Some things that I used to like, I don't enjoy any more, and some things I've never liked I've made myself sick on in the last few months."

"Oh." Ethlyn had sailed through her own two pregnancies with barely a moment of sickness or any other aberrant behavior. "Well, I do hope you're feeling well enough for the ball tonight."

"I wasn't planning on it," Raquesis said, and the glance she gave Ethlyn over the edge of the menu was the expression of someone bluffing through a bad hand of cards.

Ethlyn repressed a laugh but couldn't keep from smiling. Marriage and war, motherhood and widowhood all shaped Raquesis but hadn't really brought her maturity. This new shell of jaded boredom fit Raquesis like a borrowed dress; she'd been made of fire and will from the first time they'd met, ten long years before, and Ethlyn simply didn't believe that the fire was out.

"Oh, Raquesis. Don't be silly," she said then, as she had many a time in their girlhood. "You can't miss this."

"Every night of this voyage is an occasion not to be missed," Raquesis said, all wide eyes and sharp teeth.

"That's exactly it," said Ethlyn, and now she did laugh a little. "Every night is one to remember, so you really have to go to the ball."

"I haven't anything to wear. I don't want to show up like a black rose in the middle of this beautiful garden."

This was the point where Ethlyn would've said, "I have a gown you can borrow," except that she stood a solid four inches above Raquesis and that really wouldn't work. Instead she reached across the table and caught one of the younger woman's hands in her own.

"Raquesis, I think if you and I put our heads together we can make this a wonderful evening," she said.

And just as Quan could charm Sigurd into things, and Sigurd in turn could cajole Eldigan against his better judgment, Ethlyn was able to get Eldigan's headstrong sister to admit that maybe she could use a really good celebration to perk her spirits up.

-x-

Of course the flower shop on-board the _Queen Nova_ offered corsages for the ladies. Princess Ethlyn instructed him to bring back something cheerful that _wasn't_ a rose, and Finn hoped the coral-hued peony in a spray of orange-blossom would do the job… if it didn't make Lady Raquesis faint from its overwhelming fragrance. The perfume leaking out of the little pink box on his dresser already had flooded through his entire suite.

The children wouldn't be at the ball, of course, but Finn found himself treating the occasion as he would any other assignment. He had his instructions. He'd committed his lines to memory. He'd obtained the corsage. In his blue dress uniform, a presentation sword at his belt, Finn supposed he made an acceptable escort for a noble lady of Agustria. So he walked down the corridor to her stateroom and tapped on her door without any sense of anxiety over how the evening would go, or ought to go.

Isa opened the door on behalf of her mistress and asked if Lord Finn might make himself comfortable for a few moments. Finn wasn't surprised that Raquesis was making him wait and declined the drink that Isa offered. There would be enough of that going on at the ball itself.

Then Raquesis came through the door of her bedroom and Finn both wished he'd had accepted that drink and began to doubt his assignment. The Princess of Nordion stood before him resplendent as a sunset in satin the bright hue of marigolds, with the famed ruby parure of House Nordion in her hair, at her ears, on each wrist, and occupying the general area where the peony corsage was supposed to go. Faced with this spectacle, Finn nearly forgot his script, and it took intense and conscious effort to greet her properly and offer the poor redundant cluster of flowers. She then graced him with a knowing smile that made her look a bit like a satisfied cat.

So things were already not going to plan when they reached the ballroom, and then the usher made it worse by announcing Finn as the second son of the Duke of Wexford— which was entirely the truth but always made things exquisitely awkward when young ladies of breeding were present. Any _potential _trouble with the young ladies, though, was nothing at all compared to the actual reaction Finn and Raquesis received from the crowd as a body when the the attendees caught sight of that brilliant satin gown. It was a hiss, thought Finn, the sound of water thrown over hot coals.

There always _had_ been talk about Lady Raquesis— because she was the legitimized bastard of the late King of Nordion, because she sought the company of common men in her brother's employ and spurned the offers of young men from good families, because she stayed at Lord Sigurd's side long after he'd been blamed for the ruin of Agustria. And now here she was, seven months a widow and her mourning put aside for the most celebratory color possible. Perhaps, Finn thought, she'd endured the rumors about herself so long she simply no longer cared. The upper echelon of the _Queen Nova's _social life did, though; the older women made a show of snubbing Raquesis in conversation and the younger ladies descended on Finn with a series of equally obvious attempts to get him away from Raquesis.

It was quite dull, really. Finn found himself beset by a pair of ladies, one in mint-green and the other in shell-pink, who wanted some time with the second son of the Duke of Wexford and knew nothing else about him but that detail. His rank and background put together caused certain young ladies to imagine vast wealth and castles and the life of ease that awaited them if they could only marry such a man. Finn dearly wanted to explain that yes, his father _had_ been one of the senior nobles in the kingdom of Leonster, but as a _second_ son he'd inherited nothing and all his estates and holdings back home amounted to a townhouse, two horses, and a modest sum of money in the bank. He imagined this would make the pink-and-green ladies scurry off in search of something better, but since it was ill-bred to discuss his finances, he had to endure them each for the length of a song.

-x-

The ball verged on intolerable, and if there hadn't been a greater plan in the works Finn would've been doubting Princess Ethlyn's senses. But a mission was a mission and he endured this, too, until Raquesis gave them an out by reminding him of her recent delicate state. Of course this added to the scandal of her appearance for anyone in earshot but at this point neither of them really cared in the least. Finn escorted Raquesis out of the ballroom with as much elan as he had and then very deliberately did _not_ steer her in the direction of the staterooms.

"Oh, this is interesting," Raquesis said as he guided her through a forbidden staircase. For the first time that night she sounded like she meant it.

Finn had no fear now of getting lost, as he'd committed the plan of the passenger decks to memory after his blunder into the Second Class stairwell earlier that week. He knew they weren't supposed to be on that top deck, but getting caught was all part of the plan, and so as they walked out under the stars he felt at again at ease with his task.

Raquesis, for her part, pulled an enameled case out of her beaded bag and offered him a cigarette.

"No, thank you." He did have a match to light a cigarette for her, though.

"All right," she said. "Since we're off alone, maybe you can satisfy my curiosity."

"Regarding what?" Finn was certain she meant no innuendo by it.

"How much remorse are you feeling over packing this grand ocean liner of yours with so much in the way of munitions that a careless accident might blow us all to pieces?"

He'd known from the moment she began asking questions about shipments of wheat that Raquesis was on to the ruse and so Finn didn't bother with any unconvincing denials.

"Oh, I'm not much concerned about that," he replied. "I suppose I do feel guilty to be up here enmeshed in the high life while the rest of our number sit down in steerage."

"What number is that, Finn?" He could only see half of her face, like a quarter moon, but he heard something unexpected now in her voice.

"The reinforcements we're bringing to Lord Sigurd."

"Here?" Her cigarette flared and died in the dark. "On this ship?"

"Yes. It seemed far safer than sending a troop carrier through submarine-filled waters."

"You and Quan have soldiers hidden away on a passenger liner?"

Finn decided the strange note in her voice was muted outrage. His own tone chilled considerably as he replied to Raquesis.

"You knew we were coming to support Lord Sigurd. Did you think we merely meant moral support, to cheer him with a visit from his niece and nephew?"

"No... I... well, I did know about the munitions. I'm just a little shocked that you brought live cargo along, too."

"Well, now you know."

Footsteps behind them warned Finn that someone was coming up the forbidden staircase, but Raquesis had heard them as well and responded by launching herself toward him and pressing him into a kiss— a long, presumably convincing kiss. She tasted of cigarettes and sherry but in that moment Finn didn't care; if they'd been seen, he'd fulfilled his promise to Princess Ethlyn.

"Was that good enough?" she muttered afterward.

"Fine," he assured her.

The stars, he thought, were so bright they cast shadows. He would have liked to stay there, but the other young couple making an rendezvous under the stars shortly became obnoxious, and so Finn and Raquesis went back to where they belonged.

**To Be Continued**

* * *

><p>AN: The idea that Finn comes from a distinguished noble family comes from the _Fire Emblem: Treasure_ art book. The idea that Raquesis wasn't exactly a legitimate princess at birth comes from the Oosawa Mitsuki manga adaptation of FE4.


End file.
